Title
Honoring and recognizing the Honorable William Thaddeus Coleman, Jr. for his trailblazing efforts in the areas of civil rights, equality, and the law.
Body
WHEREAS, Mr. William Thaddeus Colman, Jr. was born in Philadelphia on July 7, 1920 to William Thaddeus Coleman and Laura Beatrice Mason Coleman. Mr. Coleman was brought up in the Philadelphia public school system and during his time at Germantown High School was one of only seven African American students at the school; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Coleman went on to graduate Summa Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1941 and attended Harvard Law School, where he became only the third African American to serve on the Harvard Law Review as an editor, and went on to graduate Magna Cum Laude and ranked first in his class at Harvard Law; and
WHEREAS, After law school Mr. Coleman served as clerk for Judge Herbert Goodrich in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit before becoming the first African American to clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court, working for Justice Felix Frankfurter; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Coleman, Jr. played an integral role in ending segregation as his legal expertise led him to argue before the United States Supreme Court over 90 times, leading to landmark decisions such as Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. The Board of Directors of City Trusts for the City of Philadelphia, McLaughlin v. Florida and Brown v. Board of Education; and
WHEREAS, In the case of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. The Board of Directors of City Trusts for the City of Philadelphia, Mr. Coleman was part of the legal team that persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court that Girard College's discriminatory practice of only admitting white children was unconstitutional, ultimately removing racial restrictions at the school; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Coleman, Jr. played an essential role in overturning a Florida criminal statute which prohibited "an unmarried interracial couple from habitually living in and occupying the ...
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